hey all i was just wandering with the technology of todays world do u think their will be a machine that will do a perfect galss job with no air bubbles no pin holes. and how far do u think they r away from making one. cause i want the first one in Aus if their is one coming soon
Thought-provoking question: I’d be surprised to see one within ten years. I know the industry has been kicking the idea around for quite a while.
How come? Well, you’d have to set up something at least as complex as a shaping machine to do it, probably a good deal more complex and lots of other problems inolved while on the other hand ( like most jobs in the textile industry in general ) glassing itself can be done by a human with relatively simple tools and not a helluva lot of training for cheap money.
Looking at the production fiberglass boat business, for instance, which has simpler stuff to do ( standard hulls, made in molds , large production runs ) and lots more economic incentive to automate, and they haven’t done it except for maybe some that use automation along with chopper guns, something you couldn’t get away with in surfboard construction.
I think that if automation comes to glassing, it’s only going to do so in combination with some very different materials, say something like a heat-shrink or pre-preg fiberglass ( or other reinforcing fiber) cloth, maybe new foams that can be autoclaved, materials designed to work as part of an automated system…and there isn’t enough money in this business to pay for that kind of R&D.
Even with pre-preg cloth, it’d also require scanning every shaped blank ( in 3 dimensions, to get the right sizes for cloth pieces ) …complex problem.
I’m a glassing machine.
Isn’t pop outs made in a glassing machine? Pretty close anyway.
Anyone looked into those wetout machines that wet out the cloth perfectly? I would guess they are very expensive and propably only useful for very high production.
regards,
Håvard
harvaard… whats a wetout machine? glassing is even more critically hand done than shaping so i see that a lot of money will have to be spent. also there is way less glamour in glassing so the rewards for a inventor are much less.
What about this: A fiberglass cloth is invented that has some stretching capabilities. Then, socks are made, like board bags, that slide over the blank. They fit snuggly, and can be quickly trimmed in the back of the board. It is put onto a conveyor belt, sent through a machine that sprays suncure resin onto them, and the other end of the conveyor belt comes out and goes into an ultraviolet light to cure. Then, it gets another sock, goes through the spray machine again, and comes out the other side. Gloss is sprayed on, then sanded and done.
The stretchable sock could be made to fit a variety of board sizes, like 6,0 to 6,3 and then another that fits 6,4 to 6,6, etc.
Hey Fairmont, I work in the composite boat building industry in Australia. One of the products we used was a Kevlar sock. It was only a small diameter. Larger dia are probablly available. It was used to reinforce grab rails and ariels etc. We would slip it onto some PVC pipe of a larger dia, then run the rail or ariel through the PVC pipe feeding the sock on.
Feraldave, Below is a picture of a wetout machine. The fibre passes through a bath of resin, then through rollers to squeese out the excess resin. Not worth the effort for surfboards. Good for boats and large composite structures.platty.
I use fiberglass wetting machine to make fiberglass boat…
I think it use lot of resin for surfboard use…
Width and thickness variances.
Thai and China made boards still use people to squeegee or squeeze out resin.
A good craftsman, ie…pro glasser, makes the best glass jobs availible, and will for another 15 years, when they get too old to care.
yep…
regards
BERT
http://flextex.com/flex-sleeve.html
About 15 years ago I did some pattern/mold work for a mast company that was doing fillament winding and then impregnating the braided sleeve. The sleeve was slipped over a bladder bag, laid into the two part mold then inflated. I’ve personally been experimenting with braided sleeves over blanks. There is no rail wrap involved. The bia weave of the fibers can be adjusted, meaning if the middle of the board has a 45 degree weave but the ends are at 70+ degrees, when you pull the sleeve it “shrink-forms” to the tapered shape of the board. Still trying to figure out the cleanest way to “end” it. Ending up with a gnarly rope type ends that have to be cut off and ground/shaped.
It is concievable that a prepreg sleeve will be slipped over stuck into a bag and “cooked”. From my understanding they can even adjust the weave to end fibers at certain points so that the end gathering, where the fibers are pulled and tapered around the nose/tail, is less bulky.
All the technology is in place it is just waiting for someone to put it all together.
they exists today in other hitech applications - computer controlled automated tape laying machines are used in industry…economic feasibility makes a big difference…surfboard foam makes it nearly impossible…anyway by the time feasibility for surfboards exists someone will have come up with a better mouse trap…
Also there is http:www.braider.com where they have a plethora of info and a calculator for different properties of braided composites. I think they may be a bit on the high side for quantities for a home/garage builder. Possibly if you ran the braided fabric through a fabric impregantor with a long open time resin or impregate and cool, then slip over the board and vac bag with some raised temp post cure then grind the flash from the ends or leave it long and trim while green. Seems as though the braided fabric would give a heavier glass at the nose and tail where it was not stretched as much. How would that impact flex, etc? Unless you go to a square outline, and who would want that?
Just my .02.
Pete